In the Federal Court in Perth Mr Johnston was banned from managing a company for 20 years, matching the 20-year disqualification handed down to the disgraced former FAI executive Rodney Adler.

Yesterday's ruling marks a formal end of the line for Mr Johnston and his fuel pill, which was supposed to eliminate cars' poisonous emissions and increase their fuel efficiency.

But it is understood the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's criminal investigation into Firepower is continuing.

In approving the application for Mr Johnston's disqualification, Justice John Gilmour said conduct such as his ''diminishes investor and public confidence in commercial markets''.

Mr Johnston's disqualification followed a court ruling in February when ASIC successfully argued Firepower companies had improperly sold shares to investors. The company never met its promises in its 16-year history, from when it was founded in 1992 to when it went into liquidation in 2008.

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Instead Mr Johnston raised $100 million as he led 1400 investors on a wild dance, securing investments from people including the AFL footballer Wayne Carey and the former defence chief Angus Houston.

The federal government's export promoter, Austrade, was among the duped, contributing $400,000 and allowing Mr Johnston to use embassies and even ambassadors' private residences to promote his wares.

Mr Johnston's delusions of grandeur stretched to sponsorships of the Sydney Kings basketball team and the South Sydney Rabbitohs, allowing him to rub shoulders with Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court.

In 2007, as his empire was being picked apart by more than 60 articles by then Herald journalist Gerard Ryle, Mr Johnston lived in a $10,000-a-week flat in Mayfair, London. Dustin Hoffman was a downstairs neighbour.

As Mr Johnston inflated the company's prospects with promises of riches from listing the business, he gathered a crowd of business partners including Gordon Hill, a former WA police minister, Warren Anderson, a well-known property developer, and Grigory Luchansky, a Russian oligarch.

As Mr Johnston's story unravelled, unsavoury truths emerged. Cheated of Firepower's sponsorship, the Kings were put into liquidation and then the national basketball competition collapsed.

The bans for Mr Johnston, and a six-year ban for one of Firepower's chief marketers, Quentin Ward of the financial advice firm Axis International, follow ASIC's civil action against Firepower companies.